Low Hepatitis awareness: Doc
Published on: Saturday, December 19, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Public awareness on hepatitis and its risks remains very low not only in the country, but also in the world, said University of Malaya Medical Centre's Professor and Consultant Hepatologist Prof Dr Rosmawati Mohamed.Dr Rosmawati said, in fact, the awareness level for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is higher compared to hepatitis."And if you compare Hepatitis B and C, people are more aware of Hepatitis B mainly because of the vaccination available for it… there's no vaccination for Hepatitis C currently available. People are not aware of it because most don't even know it exists.
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"Most people don't even know that there are many different viruses that can cause liver diseases," Dr Rosmawati said during the first Sabah Hepatitis Seminar, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, here, on Friday.Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver caused by five types of viruses A, B, C, D and E. While Hepatitis A and E are food and waterborne, Hepatitis B, C and D are transmitted via infected body fluids through parenteral contact. It is said that Hepatitis B can be 100 times more infectious than HIV. "The commonest way for Hepatitis B to spread is from mother to baby where the mother is already infected and she will pass the virus to the child during birth. And one of the most important ways to prevent it is by vaccination."Before the introduction of Hepatitis B vaccination in 1989, there were more cases of people infected with the virus from mother to baby. After 1989, since everyone gets vaccinated then the chances have been reduced.
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"As most Hepatitis B infections come from the mother to the child, those who are born before 1989 are considered at a high risk which means they need to undergo at least a screening because the prevalence in the population among those born before 1989 can be as high as five per cent," Dr Rosmawati said.But because there are no symptoms, according to Dr Rosmawati, the patients don't know that they are infected.
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She added, for Hepatitis C, the most common way for it to spread is through infected blood or needles."So the people who are at risk are those who received blood transfusion or had surgery before 1994 as tests for Hepatitis C were only available in 1994."As such, Dr Rosmawati who is also the Co-Chairperson of the WHO Global Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee for Viral Hepatitis said, it is better to do screening as early as possible to prevent the virus from progressing."Most general physician clinics can do the tests. But for some, when they are found positive they thought they are 'healthy carriers' as they don't feel anything but they still have the risk of the virus to progress. That's why we have to assess them."Treatment is available for Hepatitis B and C. The only difference is that we can't cure Hepatitis B, we can only suppress the virus to reduce the likelihood of the patient to progress into more serious complications like liver cancer."For Hepatitis C, we can cure the patients now which means we can get rid of the virus altogether and the chances to be fully cured is very high."But the first step is to detect it. There are still many people out there who have not been detected. So there's a need to create awareness among the public so that if you have any of the risk factors even if it's minor, then you need to get tested," she said.Worldwide, more than 500 million people are chronically infected with Hepatitis B and C and globally 1.4 million people die each year from the complication of viral hepatitis.Malaysia's data on incidence of viral Hepatitis B and C from 2005 to 2011 is estimated to be around three to six per 100,000 population. In 2012, there were 2,637 cases of newly notified Hepatitis B cases, representing and incidence rate of 8.99 per 100,000 population.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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